190 



curious to hoar one after the otlier ask again for "tliat bottle." It was a 

 brilliant success. Hie every one with a regard for table luxuries, and that 

 should include all sensible people, hie to your lawns and grass-plots and gather 

 while still you may, the pretty little Fairy-riug Champignon (Marcmnius 

 Oreudes), and make for yourselves a ketclmp, that is as superior to the ordinary 

 vile black compound you meet with, as champaigne wine is to gooseben-y. Don't 

 you know it? Then get a member of the Woolhope Club to point it out to 

 you, or better, stLU, borrow the last volume of the Club's Transactions, and 

 there you will find a pretty coloured picture of it, and receipts, moreover, for 

 cooking it in many ways. Have a care to keep down the spice, however, for if 

 in too great abundance it destroys the true delicate delicious flavour of the 

 Agaric itself. 



A side dish of stewed kidneys narrowly escaped being mistaken for a dish 

 of sliced] Agarics, and another of sweetbread with buttons of the horse mush- 

 room (Afiaricus arvensis) was too good to travel far. Next followed a dish of 

 beefsteak, animal and vegetable, delioiously mingled, to the advantage of both ; 

 and at the same time a dish of t\i& Fistulina hcpatica, the "Liver fungus" or 

 "vegetable beefsteak" by itself was handed round. The slices were cut from 

 the large one gathered in the morning, and was generally pronounced a success, 

 albeit the gravy was rather too highly salted and spiced. 



The next Agaric to appear was the Hydnum repandum, "the spiked 

 mushroom," from Haywood forest. It was stewed and broiled, and those 

 members of the club who had resolved themselves into a committee of critical 

 taste, and to whom therefore all dishes were immediately brought fresh and hot, 

 quickly separated the Agarics from their gravy, and found them excellent, and 

 particularly the broiled ones, not at all unlike the oysters to which they have 

 been compax-ed. 



The next Agaric presented was the Parasol agaric, Agaricus procerus, of 

 which the less said the better on the present occasion. The delicious flavour of 

 this Agaric, which is i)erhaps the lightest and best of all of them, not excluding 

 the common mushioom, was simply drowned in its over-condimented gravy. 



The Fairy-ring Champignon (M. oreades) appeared then broiled on toast 

 after the admirable receipt of Soyer. We give it here in full, for it is the 

 very best receipt for broiling agarics or mushrooms of every kind. 



"Place young fresh agarics, or mushrooms on toast freshly made and 

 properly divided. Salt, peiiper, and place upon each one a small piece of butter 

 (or a little scalded or clotted cream). Put one clove on the toast, then cover 

 with a beU-glass and bake for a quarter of an hour, or broil before a qiiick fire for 

 twenty minutes. Do not move the glass until it is served up, by which time the 

 vapour will have become condensed and gone into the toast, and when the glass 

 j3 removed a fine aroma of mushroom will jiervade the table." (N.B.— A 

 common kitchen basin will answer the purpose of the glass as a cover for baking 

 equally as well, though it is by no means so elegant). 



